Keith D. Barth Reprimanded

Keith D. Barth, a city magistrate in Huachuca City, Arizona, was reprimanded by the Arizona Commission on Judicial Conduct on June 9, 2025 for using his judicial title and status in connection with his 2024 campaign for Santa Cruz County Sheriff -- publicly disclosing his candidacy while holding judicial office and appearing on a podcast to discuss a Democratic nominee for the same race -- violating Code of Judicial Conduct rules against abusing the prestige of judicial office and undermining judicial independence. Barth agreed to the informal sanction. The Commission explicitly cited as an aggravating factor that Barth had previously been reprimanded for similar election-related conduct; this is at least his third reprimand since 2019, with earlier cases on record from 2018 and 2020 involving the same underlying violation -- using his position as a sitting magistrate to lend credibility to his own bids for elected office.